-Please consider sponsoring RRC’s committed riders/runners by making a contribution below. All contributions are tax deductible and are made through the Rainforest Conservation Fund. One hundred percent of donations go directly towards our conservation causes! So far we have saved 128 ACRES of rainforest and provided $12,500 in critical funding for the sustainable agroforestry program! Thanks to everyone who helped, we couldn’t have done it without you. Please help us continue protecting the rainforests of the world! One acre of forest costs just $100 to purchase and protect, and in one acre, there can be literally millions of organisms! Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “To know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived — this is to have succeeded.”

*RRC hosts sponsored bike trips to raise funds for our initiatives. In the Summer of 2012, for “The Ride for the Rainforest,” we rode 325 miles from Sturgeon Bay, WI, to Chicago, IL. We obtained many sponsors for our bikers, and the donations were split between our first two initiatives. Fifty percent of contributions are used to purchase land in the endangered Rawa Kuno Legacy Forest on the island of Borneo, home to hundreds of the last wild Orangutans on the planet. So far we SAVED 128 ACRES! The other fifty percent are used to fund a sustainable agroforestry program for the native communities living in the buffer zone of the Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo communal forest reserve in the Peruvian Amazon. If you are interested in our cause, we invite you to become a member of RRC. All you have to do is contact us (see contact bar above), and we will get you on board to help save the rainforest! Whether you want to join us on a bike ride, learn more about rainforest conservation, or help raise contributions, your participation counts!

-Please note which rider/runner you are sponsoring after you have made your donation on the pay-pal page. If you want to donate with a check, please make it out to Rainforest Conservation Fund and put Rainforest Rescue Coalition in the memo section. Send your check to Rainforest Conservation Fund at 2506 North Clark Street #423 Chicago IL 60614. 50% of all contributions will be used to purchase land in the endangered Rawa Kuno Legacy Forest, and the other 50% will be used to fund the sustainable agroforestry project in the Área de Conservación Regional Comunal Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo (ACRCTT). Contributions of any amount are welcome. An acre of rainforest costs just $100 to purchase and protect forever! RRC, the Rainforest, the Orangutans and the local villagers of the ACRCTT really appreciate your support!

Rawa Kuno Legacy Forest Project:

The forests on the island of Borneo are around 130,000,000 years old (70 million years older than the Amazon)! Within the last few decades much of the forest has been reduced to plywood, and is now replaced by monoculture palm oil plantations. Orangutan populations have dropped by up to 97% during the 20th century, and just within the last ten years, the remaining populations have decreased by 50% due to forest loss and hunting. 90% of the remaining Orangutans on Earth live on the island of Borneo, and if we don’t act NOW, almost all of the forest could be gone within the next ten years…

We helped Orangutan Foundation International (by saving 128 acres) to purchase and conserve the 6,400 acre Rawa Kuno Legacy Forest, which is a refuge for hundreds of endangered Orangutans, and other amazing animals like Sun Bears and Clouded Leopards! Please continue to support Orangutan Foundation Internationals amazing work to save the Orangutan from extinction!

 -Bornean Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) endangered

Clouded Leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) vulnerable

Sun Bear- (Ursus malayanus) vulnerable

Sustainable Agroforestry Project:

The agroforestry project in the 1,000,000 acre, Área de Conservación Regional Comunal Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo (ACRCTT) is extremely important, because it is helping to show that communal reserves in the Amazon can be productive AND sustainable. This will ensure the future of present reserves, and will influence the likelihood of creating new communal reserves for native and indigenous peoples in Peru. Giving forest communities legal rights to land is one of the best ways to conserve the rainforest. This can prevent further settlement and destructive development of the area and can give communities the power to develop their land in a sustainable way while conserving their resources and forest. These forest communities rely on the rainforest for many subsistence needs and know the value of conserving the land, not just for biodiversity’s sake, but also for their own. Today, in the presence of encroaching industry and the demand for resources from the nearby city of Iquitos, local villagers and ‘ribereños’ (river people) can no longer live entirely off the forest, so they need an income for trading and purchasing essential goods. In order to make money, many people in the region resort to the ecologically damaging practices of logging, contract hunting and unsustainable resource extraction because they have no other options. This is where sustainable agroforestry comes in. Palm trees (such as the aguaje palm) are extremely useful to people and provide products such as fruits that can be made into juice or ice cream, oil, thatching, fibers and threads for making crafts, and other building materials. Many animals also rely on these palms such as tapirs and monkeys who eat the fruits, and macaws who nest in the dead tree trunks. A big problem is that people often go into the forest and cut down palms to harvest the fruit, destroying an important resource for many animals. It is essential to conserve the remaining wild palm trees for the animals, and to have sustainable agroforestry programs for the native people. By planting palms in the forest buffer zone near the villages and by teaching sustainable harvesting techniques (where fruit is harvested by climbing the trees instead of cutting them down), we can provide a crucial and sustainable income source for communities, minimize human impact on the forest, and promote a harmonious relationship between the people, plants, and animals living in this amazing region of the Peruvian Amazon. The Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo conservation area has the highest primate diversity of any reserve in the world and in one hectare you can find more species of trees than in all of North America. Also, it is located between two of Peru/Brazil’s largest protected areas: the Pacaya-Samiria National Park in Peru, and the Vale do Javari Indigenous Territory (the largest indigenous peoples’ reserve in the world) just across the border in Brazil. These three areas combined have some of the greatest biodiversity on planet Earth, and they create a perfect wildlife corridor for many of the threatened and endangered animals of the Amazon! We need your help to preserve these important ecosystems and communities!

Check out a nice view of the ACRCTT, and the Peruvian Amazon rainforest

-Giant Otter cubs (Pteronura brasiliensis) endangered

Jaguar (Panthera onca) vulnerable

-Amazonian Manatee (Trichechus inunguis) vulnerable

Bald Uakari (cacajao calvus) vulnerable

South American Tapir (Tapirus terrestris) vulnerable

-Three Toed Sloth (Bradypus variegatus)

 -Tucuxi Dolphin (Sotalia fluviatilis)

Feel free to contact us by sending an email to abg@rainforestrescuecoalition.org